I think my favorite part has to be Christian Robinson’s illustrations! I especially love Milo’s drawings, the way they provide depth to Milo as a character by giving us a look into his internal monologue and his understanding of the world around him. AASL Standards Framework for Learners: Explore/Think V.A.2: Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by r eflecting and questioning assumptions and possible misconceptions. Milo and his older sister are taking their monthly Sunday subway ride. On the train there are a variety of different fellow riders, like the businessman with the blank lonely face or the woman in a wedding dress with a pup in her handbag. To distract himself from what he's now feeling, Milo draws the lives of the people around him. Maybe that bride is off to her wedding. Maybe that boy in a suit has servants and gourmet crust-free sandwich squares waiting for him at home. But if this is what Milo thinks of these people, what must they assume about him? It really isn’t until Milo sees that the boy in the suit is going to the same place that he is that he starts to rethink things. The stories he made up earlier shift and grow kinder. And then, there’s his mom. It’s visiting hours at her correctional facility, and Milo shows her one picture he doesn’t want to change: The three of them eating ice cream on a stoop on a beautiful summer day. Milo and his big sister get on the New York subway to visit their mother, who is in prison. On the train, Milo’s sister looks at her phone but Milo – excited but also anxious about seeing his mum - watches the people around him and imagines their lives, sketching his ideas in his book. Is the man reading the crossword going home to an empty apartment with just his cat for company? Are the clean cut white boy and his dad going home to a castle in a horse-drawn carriage? What about the crew of teenage girls that get on the train and do a dance routine? But when Milo and his sister arrive at their stop, a place Milo is both longing to get to and afraid to enter, he sees that the well dressed little boy is going to the same place! Maybe it doesn't matter how he's dressed or what color his skin is. Is it possible that looks don't necessarily tell you everything you need to know about someone else's story?

Robinson recalls that after revealing his wish to create such a picture book, de la Peña “had a spark in his eye” and “disappeared for 30 minutes,” returning with a rough draft of what became Milo Imagines the World. This lesson activity will help readers to question their first assumptions of Milo after reading Milo Imagines the World. Step One A subway ride marked by anxious people-watching builds up to Milo’s most important moment of the month.A text that flows like poetry . . . Glorious.”— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review As we follow Milo on his commute, he observes the people around him and draws their lives as he imagines them to be. In Milo’s drawings, a young boy in a suit becomes a prince and a woman in a wedding dress marries a man who whisks her away in a hot air balloon. This poignant, thought-provoking story speaks volumes for how art can shift one’s perspectives and enable an imaginative alternative to what is . . . or seems to be.”— The Horn Book, starred review T (electrician): (4 stars). I guess I liked it. Surprise ending--I was wondering where it was going.

Milo’s story is my story,” Robinson said. “Like Milo, I grew up with an incarcerated parent. As a child, I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment. It was difficult not all that long ago to talk about it. I recognize that my story is not that unique. I feel compelled to let kids who feel the shame I felt then know that they’re not alone: their experience matters.” R (retired librarian): (3 stars). Language too sophisticated for the age of the child, Milo. Imagination also too advanced. Book could be shortened and still get concept across. Harold and the Purple Crayon meets twenty-first-century urban realism . . .As in Jacqueline Woodson’s Visiting Day, the joy and parent-child love shine through . . . This poignant, thought-provoking story speaks volumes for how art can shift one’s perspectives and enable an imaginative alternative to what is . . . or seems to be.” — The Horn Book, starred reviewIn Milo Imagines the World, a budding young artist named Milo lives with his grandmother in New York City. Once a week, he and his older sister take the subway to visit their incarcerated parent. During the long ride, Milo studies the other subway riders and draws pictures of their lives as he imagines them. One day, he sees a well-dressed boy riding the subway, and draws him in a castle with a drawbridge. To Milo’s surprise, the boy gets off at the same stop and waits in the same long line at the prison to visit his own parent. The one I think we, the grownups, are meant to take a way goes a little deeper. We could use some reminding that the circumstances we find ourselves in and the choices, good or bad, that led us there are not the only thing that defines us. Milo and his sister are going to see a woman who clearly adores them. We don't know what happened to put her in prison. What we do learn is that she reads to her son every night. We learn that all those pictures he was drawing were for her, and the very last words in the book are about Milo waiting in hope that she will smile when she sees them. Pictures brimming with activity, an endearing main character, and threads for thinking about art, families, and what we see in others make this a book that will hold up to many readings.”— School Library Journal